Biodiversity and biogeography of free-living marine Nematodes from salty environments.

CATALINA TERESA PASTOR; VIRGINIA LORUSSO,

Córdoba, Capital

Workshop; XXXIX Reunión Anual de ONTA; 2007

CONICET - Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

Abstract: Free-living nematodes are the most abundant and diverse metazoans in the sea and play an important functional role in the ecosystem. They are excellent organisms to use in environmental assessment, especially when new biodiversity indexes, as variation in taxonomic distinctness, are applied to species lists. Papers related to their distribution density and biodiversity are scarce around the world, and especially on American coasts. This presentation intends to show species lists from different coastal environments (Chile, Argentina, Cuba and East North America), the low number of species registered and the urgent needed, from an environmental assessment point of view, to increase that knowledge. Also a multivariate statistical analysis of American marine free-living nematode assemblages (data available from literature), will be presented as an exercise, to see the possible different faunas and their relations with geographic history. From Argentine known coastal habitat diversity, free-living nematode species found will be shown, as well as the past and present work that has been done.